what gives me hope........

children. the fact that there are children, a continuous lineage of children, gives me hope.

i thought about this today as i drove home. i was stopped at an intersection, waiting for the light to turn green. i was signaling to take a right hand turn and noticed a group of children, boys and girls, ages 8-13 or so, waiting to cross the street. when my light turned green i waited as they crossed. i watched them in their youthful innocence and natural enthusiasm and gusto for life. so beautiful. so precious. hard to imagine the adults i have come to question, shake my head in wonder at were once so like them......

i watched these children and wondered if they had any clue what was going on outside of their own safe lives. i wondered if they knew about the iraqi children, what they have to face daily. the growing number who are orphaned. i wondered if they knew about the decisions being made by our government, decisions that continually take away the power (rights) of the people and pass it on to the corporations.

a part of me wanted to protect them from the unnecessary perils and evils of current society. and a part of me wanted them to know. to be informed. not to scare--but to prepare them so that they don't have to be blindsided in the way many of us have been.

i looked over and noticed what appeared to be the oldest of the group--a young girl, 13 or so--running. powerfully determined is the phrase i would describe coming from her. her long hair flying in the wind. she had on a hat. i felt bittersweet as i thought about how many innocent years she has left before going out into the adult world. i wished for her to retain that strong enthusiasm. that zest. i wished for her a better, safer, more loving world. a heavy feeling of doubt nagged near my heart. by this point, i was crying. i watched the other children, running behind her, some with dedicated looks that said "i will catch up with you". some with looks of frustration. but all of them with that same free-flowing enthusiasm. their focus on running in the wind, the warm autumn sun on their sweet little faces. not a care in the world at that moment except for running.

the heavy feeling of doubt left my heart and was replaced by hope. while i have no idea what these children will do with their lives or the people they will become, i still had hope. i know that as long as children are a part of our world, that energy of enthusiasm, of innocence, of intense, playful focus will be a part of our surroundings. and that, now that gives me hope. perhaps one day enough of us will watch the children and know it is the hope they instill in us that can save us from ourselves.